DR Congo: Military Rebel Against Mobile Banking

DR Congo: Military Rebel Against Mobile Banking

A few weeks we showed our excitement at the Congolese government’s efforts to push the population to get bank accounts. Let’s just say that not everyone share our excitement, especially not the military in North Kivu.

The military in the region gathered on May 31st 2013 in front of the Banque de Développement des Grands Lacs (BDGL)in Goma to ask for their salaries. They claim that a large number of them have not received their money since the beginning of the operation.

The government’s idea was to send its civil servants their salaries via SMS to encourage mobile banking. This clearly did not work for the military in the area who now refuse to go through the suggested service to get their money. They blame network provider Vodacom for delaying the payments and of omitting names and transfer codes. All in all, they would simply would like the suppression of the service so that they get paid as they were before the initiative.